Some games practically demand that you study a wiki before hitting 'New Game'. And hey, that’s fine — I love a juicy lore rabbit hole as much as the next nerd. In fact, there are games that are even better than that, which, while being lore-intensive, allow you to ignore all of that and still have the time of your life.

Relying on their enjoyable gameplay loops instead, some games may be genuinely dense with intricate world-building, but they don't make it essential to the players' enjoyment. They make sure that you have fun with deeply satisfying gameplay from the moment you hit 'Start Game'.

5 The Doom lore spans eons, realms, and the multiverse

The Dark Lord will get what’s coming to him, even if I might not know everything he did wrong

As someone who spent hours watching Doom lore videos before the launch of The Dark Ages, and then spent another couple of hours explaining it to their partner, I can confidently state the Doom franchise certainly has tons of lore behind it. After all, the franchise is now 32 years old. In the Doom multiverse, there are endless realms, hell and heaven, ancient gods and older ones, multiple Earths and Mars, and one guy who has traveled through them all with a steel-barreled sword of vengeance.

Between fist-fighting God and winning, being on two Earths and Mars, corrupted Maykrs and the planet of Argent D'Nur, the Doom lore is indeed insanely complex and deep, and dare I say, enjoyable. However, it’s also something you never truly need to care about, because the sheer joy of blasting a demon in the face with a shotgun transcends all need for any lore or reasoning behind it.

Do I love the Doom lore? Yes. Does it matter that the Slayer chose the path of perpetual torment after his pet rabbit died, or that he saved his dragon from death? Sort of, but knowing that doesn’t make the dragon sections in The Dark Ages any cooler or more fun. Shooting Maykrs in the head in Doom Eternal for an ammo fountain isn’t less cool if I don’t know about the Khan or Samur Maykr. The gameplay of the Doom games is just so endlessly and constantly rewarding every second, that the lore behind them doesn’t truly matter — it’s optional for your enjoyment, not integral.

4 Elden Ring’s lore is immensely intricate and complex

As rewarding as it is to know about the Lands Between, it’s just as fun to git gud and parry

Elden Ring is undoubtedly one of the greatest games of all time, and one of the biggest reasons behind that is its immensely remarkable open world. Co-written by George R.R. Martin, Elden Ring boasts perhaps the best-written Soulsborne game so far, featuring ancient gods, otherworldly deities, political deceptions, and everything in between. However, the thing is, the core gameplay loop of Elden Ring is just so insanely enjoyable that, more often than not, the lore of the game takes a backseat.

Hey, not everyone has the time to watch tens of hours of lore explanations from VaatiVidya, and thankfully, not everybody has to. My friend and I both bought Elden Ring early last year, and we both played two completely different games. For me, reading the description of every item I picked up to know more about the world was integral to my enjoyment. For him, it wasn’t, because the joy of swinging around his Bloodfang sword and splitting enemies in half was more than enough for him. And the best part? Both of us walked away happy.

Elden Ring’s gameplay loop of finding new weapons and crafting new builds around them, leveling up, and exploring a beautiful world that punishes you as much as it impresses you is just so insanely rewarding. You really don’t need to know each and every royal family member and their intentions, or how the ancient dragons factor into the story, to enjoy the heck out of parrying and killing Tree Sentinels and taking down dragons on Torrent-back.

3 Fortnite’s story is absurdly deep and branching out

The Seven might or might not save the Zero Point, but I will certainly get zero kills

Oh boy, Fortnite. It all started with Kevin the Cube, but the actual lore of Fortnite is so absurdly intricate and deep that I could never even begin to explain what it is… or why. Fortnite's island is actually the 'zero point', the center of every universe across the multiverse, where worlds and dimensions collide. Yes, it’s a rather unsubtle way of justifying every possible collab under the sun.

Then, there’s an evil order of scientists who make the people on the island fight in an endless 20-minute loop to study combat tactics, which makes up the time of a Fortnite match. Fighting these scientists to prevent them from abusing the island’s powers are the superheroes called The Seven. There’s a whole plethora of more such shocking lore behind Fortnite, but hey, it doesn’t matter, does it?

Every time there’s a new season, or heck, even when you yourself boot into a new match, none of it matters. All that matters is getting good weapons and reaching the final circle, while using whatever new weapon or ultra-fun, ultra-gimmicky items the creators have put into the game’s latest version.

2 Five Nights at Freddy’s manages to be scary and fun without lore dumping

Bad fathers and possessed toys are aplenty in FNaF, but also optional to know a lot about

On the surface, Five Nights at Freddy’s seems like a simple survival horror game where you guard yourself from haunted animatronics as you monitor them on flickering camera feeds. However, that’s just the pile of leaves guarding the rabbit hole. Underneath it all is a story that runs so deep that you’d need about 20 MatPat videos, a corkboard, and a never-ending spool of red yarn. Multiple timelines is only the beginning of the FNAF universe, and there are also children’s souls trapped in toys, sister locations, pixelated memories, and a purple guy to top it all off.

Now, does all of that matter when you’re alone in a dark room, staring at the power meter go down as you hope to all the gods that you don’t see Foxy sprint down the hallway? Nope. Five Nights at Freddy’s might have some fantastic, complex, and deeply interesting lore, but it also doesn’t rely on it to deliver endless hours of fun. For that, the games have their impressive sound design, unforgettable jumpscares, and the gameplay loop of managing entries and exits while your fingers tremble. You don’t need to know who William or Michael Afton are, or how the former is a terribly negligent father.

Sure, there’s joy in connecting the dots, but that isn’t where the magic of the games is. That lies in the adrenaline spikes and the shrieks that inadvertently escape your mouth with each ticking clock and every thud in the hallway. The lore is optional, but the fear is guaranteed.

1 The Dark Souls trilogy is some of the most fun when you don’t know what’s going on

All you really need to know is that Gwyn is somehow responsible

The lore of Dark Souls is the biggest reason I refrained from playing the games for the longest time. It took 150 hours in Elden Ring for me to realize I actually loved the 'piece-it-together-as-you-go' formula that FromSoft became so popular for. For the entire Dark Souls trilogy, the lore is a lot like the world itself — dense, cryptic, buried in ruins, and somehow, both alive and dead at the same time.

There are ancient gods who may or may not be dragons, kingdoms that rose and fell before you were even born and reborn, a first flame that refuses to die, and entire timelines that collapse and come back. Also, Gwyn, and Gwyndolin. Or Gwynevere. Or… both?

Look, please don’t think I’m saying that Dark Souls' lore doesn’t matter or isn’t good. All I’m trying to say is that a lot of fun can be had in those games without knowing who’s who and why they might be doing what they’re doing. This is where the linear nature of the Dark Souls games comes into play perfectly — you can continue having some of the most exhilarating action-RPG experiences of your life while playing these games.

So if you want to roll through skeleton wheels, dodge magic from a guy wearing a hat bigger than his torso, or backstab knights thrice your size, you can do so without having to constantly wonder why everybody is so miserable and shirtless all the time. You can watch all the EpicNameBro videos under the sun, or praise the sun and parry through every fight, because either way, you’re going to have the time of your life playing the Dark Souls games.

Lore being optional means a game is confident in its fun quotient

When you want it, lore is fun to dive deep into and piece together. But sometimes, the beauty of a game lies in how little you need to know to be able to enjoy it immensely. You don’t need an encyclopedia or a hundred wiki pages to know how to swing a sword, jump off the Battle Bus, or shotgun blast a Cacodemon in the face.

While these games have an incredible amount of lore that is deeply rewarding to know about, they manage to remain extremely fun even without them, relying on their gameplay mechanics and core loops instead. The fun doesn’t ask questions.